330 



Anoma lies. Sphserias approach Lichens in their structure : they are known 

 by their want of thallus. 



Essential Character. — Plants consisting-. of a congeries of cellules, among which fila- 

 ments are occasionally intermixed, increasing in size by addition to their inside, their outside 

 undergoing no change after its first formation, chiefly growing upon decayed substances, fre- 

 quently ephemeral, and variously coloured. Sporules lying either loose among the tissue, or 

 enclosed in membranous cases called sporidia. 



Affinities. These are only distinguished from Lichens by their more fu- 

 gitive nature, their more succulent texture, their want of a thallus or expan- 

 sion independent of the part that bears the reproductive matter, and by the lat- 

 ter being contained within their substance and not in hard distinct nuclei origi- 

 nating in the centre and breaking through a cortical layer. From Algae there 

 is no absolute character of division, except their never growing in water; in 

 fact, it is, as has been before stated, rather the medium in which Fungi and 

 Algae are developed that distinguishes thom, than any peculiarity in their own 

 organization : for instance, the aerial Byssaceaa, which are Fungi, are nearly 

 the same in structure as the aquatic Hydronemateae, which are Algae. While 

 there is so near an approximation of these families to each other, particularly 

 in the simplest forms, it is important to remark that no spontaneous motion has 

 been observed in Fungi, which, therefore, cannot be considered so closely allied 

 to the animal kingdom as Algae, notwithstanding the presence of azote in 

 them, and the near resemblance of the substance by chemists called Fungin, 

 to animal matter. 



Fungi are almost universally found growing upon decayed animal or vege- 

 table substances, and scarcely ever upon living bodies of either kingdom ; in 

 which respect they differ from Lichens, which very commonly grow upon the 

 living bark of trees. They are, however, not confined to dead or putrid 

 substances, as is shown by their attacking various plants when in a stale of 

 perfect life and vigour. In their simplest form they are little articulated fila- 

 ments, composed of simple cellules placed end to end ; such is the mouldiness 

 that is found upon various substances, the mildew of the Rose-bush, and, in 

 short, all the tribes of Mucor and Mucedo ; in some of these the joints disar- 

 ticulate, and appear to be capable of reproduction ; in others sporules collect in 

 the terminal joints, and are finally dispersed by the rupture of the cellule that 

 contained them. In a higher state of composition, Fungi are masses of cellu- 

 lar tissue of a determinate figure, the whole centre of which consists of spo- 

 rules either lying naked among filaments, as in the Puff-balls, or contained in 

 membranous tubes or sporidia, like the thecaj of Lichens, as in the Sphaerias. 

 In their most complete state they consist of two surfaces, one of which is even 

 and imperforate, like the cortical layer in Lichens ; the other separated into 

 plates or cells, and called the hymenium, in which the sporules are deposited. 



Upon this kind of difference of structure, Fungi have not only been divided 

 into distinctly marked tribes, but it has been proposed to separate certain orders 

 from them under the name of Byssacea?, Gasteromyci, and Hypoxyla ; the first 

 comprehending the filamentous Fungi found in cellars, and similar plants ; the 

 second Lycoperdons and the like ; and the third species which approach Lichens 

 in the formation of a distinct nucleus for the sporules, such as Sphaeria. But it 

 appears to me better to consider all these mere forms of one great vegetable 

 group. 



Some writers have questioned the propriety of considering Fungi as plants, 

 and have proposed to establish them as an independent kingdom, equally dis- 

 tinct from animals and vegetables ; others have entertained doubts of their being 

 more than mere fortuitous developements of vegetable matter, called into action 

 by special conditions of light, heat, earth, and air — doubts which have been 



